Field
The present application relates to a method and system for discovering and grouping users of a service. More specifically, this application relates to a method and a system that groups users based on the location and orientation of a mobile device.
Related Art
With the rapid development of mobile computing technology, usage of mobile applications (commonly referred to as apps) has become increasingly prevalent across mobile phone users. Many marketers have turned to mobile apps when they try to reach a large audience. Accordingly, many apps have been developed for marketing purposes. For example, WeChat (a mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent Inc. of China) provides a red envelope function that allows marketers to give away cash or coupons to users in order to promote their brand. Taobao and Tmall (Taobao and Tmall are the online shopping websites operated by Alibaba Group of China) also provide similar mobile apps that can be used as a promotion platform for marketers.
One popular function of the red envelope app is the “red envelope fission,” which allows a user to turn a received red envelope (which may contain a predetermined amount of cash reward) into multiple red envelopes that can be distributed to other users. A marketer can effectively reach a larger audience through the propagation of the red envelopes. Similarly, a marketer may want to distribute promotional materials (e.g., cash rewards or merchandise coupons) to a selected group of users.
These aforementioned apps and other similar apps require the ability of the server to select, from a large number of users, a group of users, and to allow the selected users to exchange information with the server as a group. To ensure successful and reliable information exchange, the number of users within the group needs to be limited. If the number of users in a particular group exceeds a predetermined threshold, information transmission errors may occur.
Conventional approaches, such as the “red envelope fission” app, rely on geographic range to group users and to limit the number of users in a group. For example, the “red envelope fission” app typically requires that the receiver of a red envelope share fissioned red envelopes with users in his vicinity. Similarly, a marketer may distribute a merchandise coupon to users at a particular geographic location, such as within a one-mile radius. Because only a limited number of users can co-exist in a particular geographic location, that location information can be used to limit the user number in a group. The geographic or spatial information of users can be extracted from the global positioning system (GPS) modules in the mobile devices carried by the users. Because most civilian GPS modules have limited accuracy, some apps may place users having the same GPS reading in a group. For example, the precision range of the GPS in a typical mobile device can be around 15 meters; users within the 15-meter radius will have the same GPS readings and will, thus, be assigned to the same group.
However, grouping users in the same geographic location has limitations. Some applications may require a group to include users at different geographic locations. For example, a user using the “red envelope fission” app may wish to distribute the fissioned red envelopes to his friends living in a different city. Moreover, a marketer may want to distribute promotional materials to a group of users randomly selected from different cities. The conventional location-based grouping approaches do not provide sufficient flexibility in these situations.